Ok about the Rules

[necklessone]

Yeah, that setup is rough. The only strong late game weapons the Riot Shotgun, Triple Barreled Shotgun (which is hard to guarantee the ammo for sometimes), and the Signature Special. I'm not a Telescopic Sight Rifle fan myself, though I've seen people do funny tricks with it (usually involving other high powered weapons). This is actually a bit of a problem with Alliance. Consider replacing either the Flash Grenade pile or the Telescope Sight Rifle with the Lightning Hawk pile from outbreak.

[Magic Drop]

So I guess it would have been better for me to buy the base game before getting Alliance.

[JMatthew]

Agreed - Alliance is a little more advanced. The mansion itself is more difficult then the mansion from the base set. As you learn the game it really doesn't has as much "build up" time as you might imagine as you become more adept at knowing how to get a character to do what you want it to do. The infection mode in Outbreak forces this upon players, especially if you dare to play with NO infection healing cards as you are forced to race for the mansion or become a Zombie yourself - really creates a Action/Horror mode rather than just the simple shopping, followed by a blood-bath.

Another means of getting the game going a little more qucikly and something we use as a house rule is to grant every character their starting deck from Mercenaries mode, even when playing Story mode. Not only can this get things moving faster, but it also gives you more of a feel that you are actually playing THAT specific character since the deck is customized to the them.

[ShakeZoola]

Another means of getting the game going a little more qucikly and something we use as a house rule is to grant every character their starting deck from Mercenaries mode, even when playing Story mode. Not only can this get things moving faster, but it also gives you more of a feel that you are actually playing THAT specific character since the deck is customized to the them.

But some starting decks are just straight up better than others...at least with the basic set up everyone starts on a level field...

[135forte]

You could also try making your own inventory for everyone to, Standard Sidearm, Knife, First Aid Spray, 7 Ammo 10x worked nice for my group.

[Hero_guy]

I agree with what has already been said. The base set up is bad. I'm not sure I would change it though as it emphasizes smart buys at the start of the game rather than just buying whatever and hoping it will work out. Then again I've been playing this game since release and, I would guess, as everyone else here I have got my early deck builds pretty much stream-lined.

Personally, I like the Alliance mansion more than the Premier set mansion, but only because the Alliance one is more difficult. And to get the big damage that is needed to defeat the bigger infected, you will need to be able to draw more cards. A 5 card hand will not win any games. Although what you really want is to have +2 action and +draw cards combined to really give you the ability to draw multiple weapons and enough ammo to power them all.

[kelemvelor]

It does get pretty tough with the initial set-up. It is do-able if you want to run a 5 card deck though:

3 x Russian Assault Rifle
2 x Desperate Escape

These would already gives you 100 damage. It would require Quirk of Fate to reduce the deck which means damage would flunctuate (due to 6 card choose 5) between 50/80/100 damage.

Of course this is a generic deck. You can get more combos (some more efficient) through the abilities of different chars and in the speciality weapons. The other option aside from minimizing deck size to 6 cards is to obtain Uroboros Injection + Fierce Battle to obtain large card draws (and hopefully multiple weapon and ammo cards)

Jack Krauser is a tough nut to play. Basically You really need to get to level 2 so start hunting down the Infected to get those points. Of the mansions, the Infected as a standard usually has the boss (health 90), the subboss (health 60) and a bunch of other Infected which peaks at 40 health. So getting the shotgun could clear off most the mobs except the boss and subboss. Getting Krauser to get more effective after that is by basically increasing his hand size (his level 2 ability). It basically requires you to perform an analysis of maximizing DPS per card played. As a standard rule, the total cards played for the weapon and ammos (or other effects) should give more than 10 damage per card. Eg;

Low performing combos (just keep the cards in hand for more damage);
1) Knife = 5 damage per card
2) Handgun + Ammo = 5 damage per card

Break even (to play or stay in hand)
1) Telescopic Rifle + 2 x Ammo = 10 damage per card
2) AK + Ammo = 10 damage per card

To use to get the 90 damage mark for the boss
1) Telescopic Rifle + 1 Ammo + DE = 13.3 damage per card
2) Riot Shotgun + 2 x Ammo = 15 damage per card
3) Gathering Forces (1 time per turn only) (with two buys in your hand. Heck, buy two green herbs even...) = 20 damage per card
4) Gathering Forces + Star Crossed (with card to get from inven) = 20 damage per card
5) Fierce Battle = 40 damage! (though not really do-able for reduced sized decks)

For Krauser, if he plans to have a reduced deck then he needs the Signature Special. So Krauser with 6 card deck of
- Signature Special
- 2 x (Ammo x 30)
- 1 x Gathering Forces
- 1 x Starcrossed Lover
- Quirk of Fate

gives 90-100 consistent per turn damage. If you can't get the signature special, just get; Ouroboros Inj + Fierce Battle + Gathering Forces and hope for the best.